Savoring the moment

The Pittsburgh Penguins celebrate after beating the Detroit Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup on Friday night.

The
group picture of the Pittsburgh Penguins gathered around the Stanley
Cup they won Friday night in Detroit will soon be ubiquitous in the
Steel City. It will be plastered on everything from cereal boxes to
T-shirts to posters and sold to fans hungry for memorabilia.

But hidden on someone's digital camera is another picture, one that
won't be used in merchandising but one that has meaning to those who
posed for it.

Late Friday night, long after captain Sidney Crosby took the first
sip of champagne but before the team's charter left for Pittsburgh at
2:45 a.m., a group of six taxi squad players and a coach gathered
around the Stanley Cup in the Penguins locker room for one last photo.

It was a team picture of sorts for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
Penguins who have been practicing with the parent club for the last
month or so - defenseman Ben Lovejoy (Orford, N.H.), goalies John Curry and Brad
Thiessen, forwards Jeff Taffe, Chris Minard and Dustin Jeffrey and
coach Todd Reirden.

"I think (Dan Bylsma) was around too, but I don't know if he qualifies," Lovejoy said. "He's definitely graduated by now."

The taxi squad players had been taking the ice for 9 a.m. practices
regularly since Wilkes-Barre/Scranton was eliminated from the Calder
Cup playoffs last month, just in case injuries struck.

Two days before Game 7, after one of those practices, Reirden
delivered some exciting news. If the Penguins won, the taxi squad would
be allowed on the Joe Louis Arena ice to celebrate.

"As if we weren't already cheering hard enough, that made us the biggest cheerleaders in Detroit," Lovejoy said.

The players watched most of Game 7 in their suits from the concourse
Friday night, but as the Penguins carried a 2-0 lead into the third
period, they were faced with an interesting dilemma.

When was it appropriate for them to head to the locker room to get
their jerseys and skates on? They didn't want to jinx anything.

With 13 minutes to go, they made their move.

"We were getting our gear on and all of a sudden they score,"
Lovejoy said. "It was like, 'Oh my God. That's our fault. We did that.'"

Thanks to some prodding from veteran scratches Petr Sykora and
Philippe Boucher, the taxi squad resisted the temptation to change back
into their suits for good luck. A few minutes later, the clock struck
zero and the Penguins were Stanley Cup champions.

The practice squad players decided etiquette dictated they wait a few minutes before joining the celebration.

"We didn't go right on the ice and jump on the pile. We wanted to
wait until after the handshakes," Lovejoy said. "Could you imagine if I
got in line and shook Niklas Lidstrom's hand? He'd look at me like I
had three heads."

Finally, the practice squad players joined the party. They knew they
were allowed to be on the ice, but they weren't sure it was OK for them
to get in line to handle the Cup.

"Did we want to touch it?" Lovejoy said. "Did we really earn it?"

Their concerns were quickly laid to rest in a dramatic way.

"Mario (Lemieux) came over to Taffe and said, 'Go get it,'" Lovejoy recalled. "I think he could tell we were being cautious."

None of the practice squad players appeared in 40 of Pittsburgh's
games in the regular season or one game in the finals, so they won't
have their names inscribed on the Cup. Lovejoy said he doesn't know
whether they will receive championship rings or get their day with the
trophy either.

But none passed on the chance to lift sport's most famous trophy over their heads for a few moments Friday night.

"It was so cool," Lovejoy said. "You just want to make sure someone
gets a picture so you can prove to your friends that you actually did
it. It was awesome."